Famous Ephebophile: Donald Trump | The Allure of Teen Models

Levine and El-Faizy posted excerpts from their book All The President's Women on Cosmopolitan in the article "Teen Models Remember Trump Would “Find a Reason” to Come Backstage When They Were Changing".  The subtitle is even more revealing than the title of the book and the post:

"In exclusive excerpts from the explosive new book All the President’s Women, modeling contestants recall President Trump’s “gropey” behavior and his interest in young girls."

Here are some excerpts of the excerpts:

Among modeling insiders, Trump had a reputation at the time for preferring the younger girls. “If you’re over twenty-one you don’t have to worry,” Carr said she was told.

Stacy Wilkes competed in the 1991 [Look of the Year] contest as a sixteen-year-old, representing the United States. She remembers Trump coming into their dressing area during the contest, more than once. 

“I would feel really uncomfortable, because every time we would change, it was like Trump would find a reason to come backstage to see all the teenagers,” she told us. “When you’re doing a runway show, they have to strip you down and change you....There was no need for him to be back there.” 

Trump never tried to justify his presence backstage but would just walk in and start making jokes. The girls didn’t feel that they were free to complain. 

“We were afraid to say anything bad when he was around because we didn’t want anything to hurt our chances of winning,” Wilkes said. “We were all young teenagers.” 

Wilkes’s roommate ended up spending the night with one of the celebrity judges, Wilkes said, and later won one of the prizes.

Models report similar things happening during the competition the following year. Shawna Lee was only fourteen when she was the entrant from Canada in the 1992 Look of the Year contest. She also attended an event on a yacht. This time the girls were asked to walk one by one down a staircase and dance in front of Trump and [John] Casablancas [of Elite agency], who were seated in chairs at the bottom. 

“It was a very small area and I could see them laughing and making fun of the girls,” most of whom were fifteen and sixteen years old, she said in an interview for this book. “You know, these men were older than my father at the time, looking girls up and down and objectifying them. It was just kind of gross. I don’t think doing that had anything to do with being a professional model.”

Lee told us that Trump wandered around their dressing room, too, before the runway show. “I was thinking, what’s that old guy doing back here,” she said. “I was changing and looked up as he was looking and doing a slow stroll by, checking out the girls.”